ASRock Phantom Gaming PG-1000G (ATX v3.1) Review

1. Introduction2. Bundle & Cabling3. External4. Internal5. Testing Methodology and Results6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Today I get my first ever look at an ASRock branded power supply branded as the ‘Phantom Gaming'. This power supply is fully modular, is 80 Plus Gold certified and ships with a comprehensive 10 year warranty. The ASRock OEM of choice for this unit is FSP, and we will take a closer look to see if the performance can match up to the high aspirations, later in the review.

ASRock do not seem to be messing around with the PG-1000G, their website has a lot of data on display such as the adoption of 100% Japanese capacitors, a high grade fluid dynamic bearing fan, a semi passive fan control mode, along with a 5V ‘Boost Mode'. For the interests of my sanity I will be referring to this power supply throughout this review as simply ‘PG-1000G'.

Product highlights:

• 80 Plus Gold Certified
• Cybenetics GOLD and LAMBDA A Certified
• ATX 3.1 & PCIe 5.1 Ready
• Fully modular cable design
• Native 12V-2×6 Connector Dual Colour Design with Tempguard
• 100% Highly reliable Japanese capacitors
• 135mm Intelligent Fan Control Mode
• 5V ‘boost Mode'
• 10 year warranty.

The box artwork for the PG-1000G is certainly eye catching – bright pinks and purples and a row of icons along the bottom highlighting features. I am happy to see Cybenetics certifications on these units as well.

I know I am not reviewing the box, but full marks for the efforts on this one. Full gloss finish and an array of details on various features, including focus on the cabling and component selection.

Inside the box, the power supply is sandwiched between two thick slabs of foam. The cabling and accessories sit alongside the main PSU in a separate compartment.

ASRock bundle a bag of cables, some plastic and felt cable ties, cable combs, PSU test adapter, a regional specific power cable and some literature on the product. It is a pretty comprehensive bundle.

Cables and connectors
	Cable Count	Connectors
ATX Connector (600mm)	1	1
4+4 pin EPS12V (650mm)	2	2
6+2 pin PCIe (675mm+150mm)	2	4
6+2 pin PCIe (670mm)	1	1
12+4 pin PCIe (700mm) (600W)	1	1
SATA (455mm+105mm)	3	9
4 Pin Molex (455mm+105mm)	1	3

The cable quality is excellent, each cable is individually braided and none of them have in cable capacitors. The cables range from 16 AWG to 22 AWG throughout.

The PG-1000G is colourful looking with PG stickers on the sides (no it does not mean ‘parental guidance'). While I like the box aesthetics I cannot say I am a particular fan of the unit colours, I would rather have simple colours that wouldn't potentially clash within a system build. Apart from this minor niggle, the build quality of the supply seems really good. It measures 150x86x150mm.

The PG-1000G is nicely finished and the paint quality is excellent.

The power side of the unit has a power connector, power switch and ‘iCool' switch. This is a semi passive fan option like we have seen in many other units lately under various ‘names'. When enabled, the fan will disable until a certain temperature range.

The modular bay is fairly traditional in layout, but those with eagle eyes will notice the button top right in the image above.

This ‘5V boost' feature is a voltage compensation system that FSP have been working on. In their own words ‘When this switch is enabled, it boosts the +5V voltage to maintain optimal performance. If not voltage drop occurs, the PSU will regulate the +5V rail to approximately +5.15V, ensuring consistent power delivery.'

So in theory it appears to be a stability boost switch which most people will either not understand or touch in the first place. Quite why they didn't just build it into the unit as a default option I don't know. Having a droop potentially to 4.9v with it on instead of 4.75v would be much better (in theory) but again I am pretty sure these are just colourful and somewhat dramatic ‘technical' images on the website to attract people.

The power output for the PG-1000G is what we would expect. The primary +12V rail can deliver 83.3A while the minor +3.3V and +5V rails are set at 20A. These are powerful enough output capabilities to handle the monster power output of the new Nvidia RTX5090 graphics card (See HERE) alongside a high end processor.

ASRock are using a 135mm fan which is a high grade Fluid Dynamic bearing model – Model number PLA1352S12M. This fan is rated DC 12V 0.40A. There is not a lot of data about this online but I know it is a Power Logic Fluid Dynamic bearing fan and I have seen it in several FSP power supplies over the years, such as the Aurum PT 1000W I reviewed 10 years ago !! The fan is quite powerful and in theory can push 111.1CFM at full speeds. If it ain't broke don't fix it I guess.

As we mentioned earlier, ASRock are working with FSP as the OEM for this power supply. The soldering quality is excellent and the main PCB appears to be made to very high standards. Underneath the PCB we can see that the FSP design adopts some small thermal pads to transfer heat from the PCB for active cooling from the chassis itself.

The primary capacitors are Nippon Chemi Con 105c rated from their excellent KMZ series. They are rated 420v 470uF and there are a pair of them for a total output of 940uF. The secondary stage uses quality Japanese capacitors as well and the design implements SCP, OPP, OTP, OCP, OVP and UVP protections.

Correctly testing power supplies is a complex procedure and KitGuru have configured a test bench which can deliver up to a 2,000 Watt DC load.

We test ambient temperatures at 35c in our environment to greater reflect warmer internal chassis conditions.

We use combinations of the following hardware:
• SunMoon SM-268
• CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs)
• CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)
• Extech Power Analyzer
• Extech MultiMaster MM570 digital multimeter
• SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa)
• Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC)

• Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA

We test in a single +12V configuration.

DC Output Load Regulation
Combined DC Load	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		+5VSB		-12V
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
100W	0.90	3.34	0.90	4.99	7.35	12.02	0.50	5.01	0.20	-12.00
200W	1.60	3.34	1.64	4.99	15.13	12.02	1.00	5.01	0.20	-12.01
500W	3.21	3.34	3.24	4.99	38.60	12.00	1.50	5.00	0.20	-12.01
750W	4.03	3.34	4.17	4.99	58.53	11.99	2.00	5.00	0.30	-12.00
1000W	5.45	3.33	5.51	4.98	78.13	11.99	2.50	5.00	0.30	-12.01

The load regulation of this power supply is very good across the board.

Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly.

The power supply had no problems sustaining at constant 1000W load.

Cross Load Testing	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		-12V		+5VSB
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
885W	2.0	3.34	2.0	4.99	72.0	11.99	0.2	-12.02	0.50	5.01
240W	20.0	3.32	23.0	4.93	2.0	12.02	0.2	-12.01	0.50	5.01

The power supply handled our cross load test very well, holding stable results across the range.

When we enabled the 5V boost switch and put 23 amps through +5V we did notice it held a little better, from around 4.93V to 4.97V.

We then used an oscilloscope to measure AC ripple and noise present on the DC outputs. We set the oscilloscope time base to check for AC ripple at both high and low ends of the spectrum. ATX12V V2.2 specification for DC output ripple and noise is defined in the ATX 12V power supply design guide.

ATX12V Ver 2.2 Noise/Ripple Tolerance
Output	Ripple (mV p-p)
+3.3V	50
+5V	50
+12V1	120
+12V2	120
-12V	120
+5VSB	50

Obviously when measuring AC noise and ripple on the DC outputs, the cleaner (less recorded/lower) means we have a better end result. We measured this AC signal amplitude to see how closely the unit complied with the ATX standard.

AC Ripple (mV p-p)
DC Load	+3.3V	+5V	+12V	5VSB
100W	15	16	20	15
250W	17	18	24	15
500W	18	20	27	16
750W	21	23	31	16
1000W	24	26	34	15

This unit passes the ripple suppression tests without any problems, and while it falls well within industry rated parameters these results are not close to the best we have seen in the last year. Minor rail suppression could be a little better.

Efficiency (%)
100W	88.1
250W	92.7
500W	93.2
750W	92.2
1000W	91.4

The efficiency results are pretty good, peaking slightly over 93% at around 50% load. This drops to around 91.4% efficiency at full load.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Today to test the Power Supply we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) one meter away from the unit. We have no other fans running so we can effectively measure just the noise from the unit itself.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide

10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 Player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

Noise (dBA)
100W	<28.0
250W	<28.0
500W	<28.0
750W	33.3
1000W	35.2

This is a very quiet power supply and below 600 watts load you would struggle to hear it operating inside a PC chassis. The fan doesn't really start ramping up until around 700 watts of load is demanded. At full load it is clearly audible, but if you need to run at 1000 watts sustained you really do need to be looking at a power supply at 1,500 watts or greater.

Temperature (c)
	Intake	Exhaust
100W	37	42
250W	38	43
500W	40	53
750W	45	57
1000W	46	61

Thanks to the very high quality fan inside, the unit remains well within good operating parameters even as the loads start to rise. At around 800 watts load the fan is pushing a lot of warm air outside the chassis. A really good set of results in regards to the heat and noise elements of this power supply.

ASRock do not send out many power supplies for review, so I was interested to see what they were releasing in 2025. The Phantom Gaming PG-1000G is certainly no slouch and has held up well during the last week of testing in our labs. I can't say I am a huge fan of the branding and having a massive ‘PG' sticker on the sides of the unit, but they are minor quibbles.

Technically this PG-1000G is capable of coping with high power demand and would be an ideal partner for a new Nvidia RTX 50 series GPU in 2025 – perfect for something like an overclocked RTX 5080. Let me digress a minute …

… The Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition can demand close to 600 watts under heavy load (Source: HERE) and recent testing at KitGuru has highlighted that some third party partner cards currently under review can consume more than 620 watts. Therefore if you are pairing this up with an overclocked high end Intel or AMD processor I would personally aim a little higher – potentially at a quality 1200 watt to 1650 Watt power supply. Remember you do not want to be hitting close to 80% or more power demand on a sustained basis as it puts more strain on the capacitors and will cause the fan to operate at higher speeds which has the downside of creating more noise.

The PG-1000G passed our cross load test and ripple suppression was well within industry rated parameters. The 5V boost feature improved some of the minor rail readings a little, but I can't help but feel that ASROCK should have just enabled it out of the box – most people may not even see the little button, or understand what it does. Effectively it seems like somewhat of a gimmick to me – and just ‘another button to press for a cool new feature'. In the real world, whether the button was ‘off' or ‘on' , the unit performed perfectly fine so I don't think it deserves a lot of attention regardless.

Sadly I am unable to find the ASRock Phantom Gaming PG-1000G for sale anywhere as I publish this today and I have not been given any idea of UK or even European pricing. Making an assumption on pricing from my point of view is tricky, but I can assuredly say that if the price is right then this unit will be definitely worth buying.

Obviously if ASRock price the PG-1000G out of the market then it makes little sense considering it, but knowing the competitive nature of the brand generally I cannot see this happening. I really have a lot of power supplies to review and I can't hold this review any longer while I wait for pricing updates. If I get any updated information on this – I will update this page ASAP.

Pros:

• 105c rated capacitors.
• 10 year warranty.
• Great build quality.
• fully modular.
• primary rail ripple suppression.
• Cybenetics certifications in place.
• High quality cables.
• good PSU protections.
• quiet in operation.

Cons:

• ASRock can tend to suffer from availability issues.

Kitguru says: The ASRock Phantom Gaming PG-1000G may have one of the longest PSU names we can remember, but under the hood it is a very capable power supply that delivers great power for a myriad of high demand use cases.

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